1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) transmitting apparatus and method, an EPG receiving apparatus and method, an EPG transmitting/receiving system and method, and a provider. In particular, the invention relates to an EPG transmitting apparatus and method, an EPG receiving apparatus and method, an EPG transmitting/receiving system and method, and a provider which allow viewers to recognize the feature of a NVOD (Near Video On Demand) program easily and reliably and hence can have that program viewed by more viewers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, also in Japan, digital satellite broadcasting has started and it has become possible to provide programs on as many as 100 channels or more. By virtue of the increase in the number of channels, what is called NVOD (near video on demand) has also been realized in which, for example, the same program is broadcast six times with 10 minutes"" delays in broadcast hours. This enables viewers to watch a desired program from its start in which they can select a watching start time in a one-hour period.
As the number of channels increases as mentioned above, it becomes more inconvenient for a viewer to select a desired program properly from a number of programs. In view of this, EPG (electronic program guide) data is transmitted separately from information of primary programs so that viewers can select a desired program based on the EPG.
To enable selection of a desired program from many programs, it has been proposed to use EPG data so as to display, for example, a mark that indicates the category of each program. Looking at a category mark, viewers can recognize relatively easily what category (e.g., movies, sports, or news) the program belongs to.
However, the conventional digital satellite broadcast has a problem that it is impossible to provide viewers quickly and reliably with information that characterizes each program, though as described above information allowing discrimination between programs on a group-by-group basis is now transmitted.
For example, the NVOD has a problem that even if the same program is broadcast six times, viewers cannot judge quickly and reliably which is the last version, in other words, the start time of a version of the program that viewers are required to watch at the latest if they wish to see the program.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances in the art, and an object of the invention is therefore to enable viewers to intuitively recognize information that characterizes each program in a quick and reliable manner and to provide viewers with the feature of each program, to thereby promote viewing of programs.
An EPG transmitting apparatus according to a first aspect of the invention comprises generating means for generating an EPG that represents a transmission schedule of programs to be transmitted; adding means for generating additional information to be used to display, so that the additional information is superimposed on the EPG, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize a feature of a particular one of the programs that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs, and for adding the feature recognition information to the EPG; and transmitting means for transmitting the EPG to which the additional information has been added.
An EPG transmitting method according to the first aspect of the invention comprises a generating step of generating an EPG that represents a transmission schedule of programs to be transmitted; an adding step of generating additional information to be used to display, so that the additional information is superimposed on the EPG, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize a feature of a particular one of the programs that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs, and for adding the feature recognition information to the EPG; and a transmitting step of transmitting the EPG to which the additional information has been added.
A provider according to the first aspect of the invention provides a computer program comprising a generating step of generating an EPG that represents a transmission schedule of programs to be transmitted; an adding step of generating additional information to be used to display, so that the additional information is superimposed on the EPG, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize a feature of a particular one of the programs that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs, and for adding the feature recognition information to the EPG; and a transmitting step of transmitting the EPG to which the additional information has been added.
An EPG receiving apparatus according to a second aspect of the invention comprises receiving means for receiving an EPG to which additional information to be used to display, so that the additional information is superimposed on the EPG, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize a feature of a particular one of programs that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs is added; extracting means for extracting the additional information from the EPG that has been received by the receiving means; storing means for storing information to be used for displaying the feature recognition information; and display control means for reading out the information stored in the storing means and corresponding to the additional information that has been extracted by the extracting means, and displaying the feature recognition information.
An EPG receiving method according to the second aspect of the invention comprises a receiving step of receiving an EPG to which additional information to be used to display, so that the additional information is superimposed on the EPG, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize a feature of a particular one of programs that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs is added; an extracting step of extracting the additional information from the EPG that has been received by the receiving step; a storing step of storing information to be used for displaying the feature recognition information; and a display control step of reading out the information stored by the storing step and corresponding to the additional information that has been extracted by the extracting step, and displaying the feature recognition information.
A provider according to the second aspect of the invention provides a computer program comprising a receiving step of receiving an EPG to which additional information to be used to display, so that the additional information is superimposed on the EPG, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize a feature of a particular one of programs that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs is added; an extracting step of extracting the additional information from the EPG that has been received by the receiving step; a storing step of storing information to be used for displaying the feature recognition information; and a display control step of reading out the information stored by the storing step and corresponding to the additional information that has been extracted by the extracting step, and displaying the feature recognition information.
An EPG transmitting and receiving system according to a third aspect of the invention comprises an EPG transmitting apparatus for transmitting information, comprising generating means for generating an EPG that represents a transmission schedule of programs to be transmitted; adding means for generating additional information to be used to display, so that the additional information is superimposed on the EPG, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize a feature of a particular one of the programs that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs, and for adding the feature recognition information to the EPG; and transmitting means for transmitting the EPG to which the additional information has been added; and an EPG receiving apparatus for receiving the information transmitted from the EPG transmitting apparatus, comprising receiving means for receiving the EPG transmitted from the transmitting apparatus; extracting means for extracting the additional information from the EPG received by the receiving means; storing means for storing information to be used for displaying the feature recognition information; and display control means for reading out the information stored in the storing means and corresponding to the additional information that has been extracted by the extracting means, and displaying the feature recognition information.
An EPG transmitting and receiving method according to the third aspect of the invention in an EPG transmitting and receiving apparatus including an EPG transmitting apparatus for transmitting information and an EPG receiving apparatus for receiving the information transmitted from the EPG transmitting apparatus, comprises, in the EPG transmitting apparatus, a generating step of generating an EPG that represents a transmission schedule of programs to be transmitted; an adding step of generating additional information to be used to display, so that the additional information is superimposed on the EPG, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize a feature of a particular one of the programs that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs, and for adding the feature recognition information to the EPG; and a transmitting step of transmitting the EPG to which the additional information has been added, and the method further comprises, in the EPG receiving apparatus, a receiving step of receiving the EPG transmitted by the transmitting step; an extracting step of extracting the additional information from the EPG received by the receiving step; a storing step of storing information to be used for displaying the feature recognition information; and a display control step of reading out the information stored by the storing step and corresponding to the additional information that has been extracted by the extracting step, and displaying the feature recognition information.
A provider according to the third aspect of the invention provides a computer program to be used in an EPG transmitting and receiving apparatus including an EPG transmitting apparatus for transmitting information and an EPG receiving apparatus for receiving the information transmitted from the EPG transmitting apparatus, a part of the computer program for the EPG transmitting apparatus comprising a generating step of generating an EPG that represents a transmission schedule of programs to be transmitted; an adding step of generating additional information to be used to display, so that the additional information is superimposed on the EPG, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize a feature of a particular one of the programs that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs, and for adding the feature recognition information to the EPG; and a transmitting step of transmitting the EPG to which the additional information has been added, a part of the computer program for the EPG receiving apparatus comprising a receiving step of receiving the EPG transmitted by the transmitting step; an extracting step of extracting the additional information from the EPG received by the receiving step; a storing step of storing information to be used for displaying the feature recognition information; and a display control step of reading out the information stored by the storing step and corresponding to the additional information that has been extracted by the extracting step, and displaying the feature recognition information.
An EPG receiving apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the invention comprises receiving means for receiving an EPG that represents a schedule of programs to be transmitted; detecting means for detecting whether a particular one of the programs has a feature that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs; and display control means for displaying, in accordance with a recognition result of the detecting means, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize that the particular program has the feature that differentiates the particular program from the other ones of the programs so that the feature recognition information is superimposed on the EPG.
An EPG receiving method according to the fourth aspect of the invention comprises a receiving step of receiving an EPG that represents a schedule of programs to be transmitted; a detecting step of detecting whether a particular one of the programs has a feature that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs; and a display control step of displaying, in accordance with a recognition result of the detecting step, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize that the particular program has the feature that differentiates the particular program from the other ones of the programs so that the feature recognition information is superimposed on the EPG.
A provider according to the fourth aspect of the invention provides a computer program comprising a receiving step of receiving an EPG that represents a schedule of programs to be transmitted; a detecting step of detecting whether a particular one of the programs has a feature that differentiates the particular program from other ones of the programs; and a display control step of displaying, in accordance with a recognition result of the detecting step, feature recognition information for allowing a viewer to intuitively recognize that the particular program has the feature that differentiates the particular program from the other ones of the programs so that the feature recognition information is superimposed on the EPG.
In the EPG transmitting apparatus, the EPG transmitting method, and the provider according to the first aspect of the invention, additional information to be used for displaying feature recognition information so that it is superimposed on an EPG is transmitted.
In the EPG receiving apparatus, the EPG receiving method, and the provider according to the second aspect of the invention, feature recognition information corresponding to received additional information is displayed.
In the EPG transmitting and receiving system, the EPG transmitting and receiving method, and the provider according to the third aspect of the invention, additional information is transmitted from an EPG transmitting apparatus and feature recognition information corresponding to the received additional information is displayed in the EPG receiving apparatus.
In the EPG receiving apparatus, the EPG receiving method, and the provider according to the fourth aspect of the invention, whether a particular program has a feature that differentiates it from other programs is detected and feature recognition information is displayed so as to be superimposed on an EPG in accordance with a detection result.